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Cultural Tourism And Sustainable Local Development
by Peter Nijkamp Luigi Fusco GirardWith the exponential rise in leisure mobility, tourism has increasingly become of great economic significance. Cultural heritage, such as museums, churches, historical landscapes, urban parks, and exhibitions attract many visitors and countries, regions and cities which house such historic-cultural amenities have seen increasingly large waves of tourists. While an avalanche of tourists has a positive impact on the local economy, such modern mass tourism also brings about negative externalities such as congestion, decline in quality of life, low access to cultural amenities and loss of local identity; to the extent that the sustainability conditions of a locality might be endangered. This tourism dilemma is particularly pronounced in cities with a rich cultural past, such as Venice, Naples and Amsterdam. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars from North America and Europe, this book examines the interface of local cultural resources and modern mass tourism from a sustainability perspective. It puts forward innovative methodologies and best case practice for future cultural conservation policies.
Cultural Tourism And Sustainable Local Development (PDF)
by Peter Nijkamp Luigi Fusco GirardWith the exponential rise in leisure mobility, tourism has increasingly become of great economic significance. Cultural heritage, such as museums, churches, historical landscapes, urban parks, and exhibitions attract many visitors and countries, regions and cities which house such historic-cultural amenities have seen increasingly large waves of tourists. While an avalanche of tourists has a positive impact on the local economy, such modern mass tourism also brings about negative externalities such as congestion, decline in quality of life, low access to cultural amenities and loss of local identity; to the extent that the sustainability conditions of a locality might be endangered. This tourism dilemma is particularly pronounced in cities with a rich cultural past, such as Venice, Naples and Amsterdam. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of leading scholars from North America and Europe, this book examines the interface of local cultural resources and modern mass tourism from a sustainability perspective. It puts forward innovative methodologies and best case practice for future cultural conservation policies.
The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline (Routledge Revivals)
by D D KosambiFirst published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.
The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in HIstorical Outline (Routledge Revivals)
by D D KosambiFirst published in 1965, The Culture and Civilisation of Ancient India in Historical Outline is a strikingly original work, the first real cultural history of India. The main features of the Indian character are traced back into remote antiquity as the natural outgrowth of historical process. Did the change from food gathering and the pastoral life to agriculture make new religions necessary? Why did the Indian cities vanish with hardly a trace and leave no memory? Who were the Aryans – if any? Why should Buddhism, Jainism, and so many other sects of the same type come into being at one time and in the same region? How could Buddhism spread over so large a part of Asia while dying out completely in the land of its origin? What caused the rise and collapse of the Magadhan empire; was the Gupta empire fundamentally different from its great predecessor, or just one more ‘oriental despotism’? These are some of the many questions handled with great insight, yet in the simplest terms, in this stimulating work. This book will be of interest to students of history, sociology, archaeology, anthropology, cultural studies, South Asian studies and ethnic studies.
Culture and Cultures in Tourism: Exploring New Trends
by Andres Artal-Tur; Metin KozakAccording to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourists engaging in cultural activities accounted for more than 500 million of international tourist numbers in 2017. City tourism relies on culture as a major product, providing benefits not only for interested visitors, but also for the local resident population. New trends in tourism include "experiential tourism", where the interactions between tourists and residents become a key part of the tourism experience and overall customer satisfaction. New technologies and IT applications allow tourists to design their own trip, given the presence of global companies like Trip Advisor, Booking.com and AirBnB. This comprehensive volume explores new trends in cultural tourism, demonstrating how and why culture has become a central factor in tourism. The authors analyse a wide range of relevant issues, including: how heritage-based and cultural tourism could contribute to the sustainability of destinations; the increase of religious travels to and within Arab countries; and how cultural tourism fosters understanding among people and cultures, and could even potentially help to consolidate peace at a regional level. The book also analyses interactions between hosts (the local residents) and guests (the cultural visitors), revisiting the pioneer hippy travelling experiences in Turkey of the 1960s and how they shaped youth culture. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of cultural tourism. The chapters were originally published in the journal Anatolia.
Culture and Cultures in Tourism: Exploring New Trends
by Andrés Artal-Tur Metin KozakAccording to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), international tourists engaging in cultural activities accounted for more than 500 million of international tourist numbers in 2017. City tourism relies on culture as a major product, providing benefits not only for interested visitors, but also for the local resident population. New trends in tourism include "experiential tourism", where the interactions between tourists and residents become a key part of the tourism experience and overall customer satisfaction. New technologies and IT applications allow tourists to design their own trip, given the presence of global companies like Trip Advisor, Booking.com and AirBnB. This comprehensive volume explores new trends in cultural tourism, demonstrating how and why culture has become a central factor in tourism. The authors analyse a wide range of relevant issues, including: how heritage-based and cultural tourism could contribute to the sustainability of destinations; the increase of religious travels to and within Arab countries; and how cultural tourism fosters understanding among people and cultures, and could even potentially help to consolidate peace at a regional level. The book also analyses interactions between hosts (the local residents) and guests (the cultural visitors), revisiting the pioneer hippy travelling experiences in Turkey of the 1960s and how they shaped youth culture. This book will be of great interest to students and researchers of cultural tourism. The chapters were originally published in the journal Anatolia.
Culture and Society in Tourism Contexts (Tourism Social Science Series #17)
by Antonio Migu Nogues-PedregalThis book strives to understand the social and cultural dynamics in Mediterranean tourism destinations through ethnographic examples and case studies from places including Greece, Spain, Morocco, Croatia, Lebanon, France, and Crete. Exploring themes such as globalization, cosmopolitanism, leisure mobilities, power, and late capitalism, this volume analyzes the blurring edges of tourism and migration, the role the former plays in the dialogical construction of cultural identities, or how the interconnection between each of the diverse residing sociocultural groups influences the relation with other groups. The work of several social scientists, from different interdisciplinary backgrounds, over numerous years is documented using multiple research techniques to observe cultures and societies as they occur in daily practices. This analysis discovers how tourism characterizes the daily lives of social groups living in tourists' destinations and how it offers a distinctive sense of collective memories, thus unfolding cultures and societies in tourism contexts.
Culture, Heritage And Representations
by Emma Waterton Steve WatsonThe 'visual' has long played a crucial role in forming experiences, associations, expectations and understandings of heritage. Images convey meaning within a range of practices, including tourism, identity construction, the popularization of the past through a variety of media, and the memorialization of events. However, despite the central role of 'the visual' in these contexts, it has been largely neglected in heritage literature. This edited collection is the first to explore the production, use and consumption of visual imagery as an integral part of heritage. Drawing on case studies from around the world, it provides a multidisciplinary analysis of heritage representations, combining complex understandings of the 'visual' from a wide range of disciplines, including heritage studies, sociology and cultural studies perspectives. In doing so, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and methodological tools necessary for understanding visual imagery within its cultural context.
Culture, Heritage And Representations (PDF)
by Emma Waterton Steve WatsonThe 'visual' has long played a crucial role in forming experiences, associations, expectations and understandings of heritage. Images convey meaning within a range of practices, including tourism, identity construction, the popularization of the past through a variety of media, and the memorialization of events. However, despite the central role of 'the visual' in these contexts, it has been largely neglected in heritage literature. This edited collection is the first to explore the production, use and consumption of visual imagery as an integral part of heritage. Drawing on case studies from around the world, it provides a multidisciplinary analysis of heritage representations, combining complex understandings of the 'visual' from a wide range of disciplines, including heritage studies, sociology and cultural studies perspectives. In doing so, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and methodological tools necessary for understanding visual imagery within its cultural context.
Cultures and Caricatures of British Imperial Aviation: Passengers, Pilots, Publicity (PDF)
by Gordon PirieCultures and caricatures of British imperial aviation assembles an unprecedented mass of scattered evidence to examine the social exclusivity of people who used private and commercial aircraft to circulate though the empire in the 1930s. While airline publicity stressed flying patrioticallyand in style, flying was not always slick, romantic or modern. It did not end danger or delay, nor was it necessarily progressive. Imperial flying was mobility laced with imperious assumptions and prejudices. It reinforced social rank and continued to depend on the subservience and muscle ofcolonised people for regular and emergency travel assistance. Complementary biographical material, illustration and narrative illuminate the atmosphere, meaning and significance of imperial civil flying. Imperial cultures and caricatures were tenacious in the face of new technology, and Pirie shows that imperial attitudes and values framed the experiences andinteractions of the (mostly) male British metropolitan and expatriate elites who flew, whether for adventure, prizes or leisure, or for colonial administration, business or research. The book also reveals the imperial sensations, sights and sensibilities experienced by those in less-privileged rolesthat served aviation. Drawing upon contemporary airline publicity and flying travelogues, he highlights the reproduction and (dubious) 'elevation' of imperialism in new spaces, which survives today as iconography in nostalgic re-enactments and sanitised commemoration of late British empire. Engagingly written by an established expert in the field, this book will be of particular interest to scholars of imperial, cultural and transport history.
A Cure for Serpents: The Life And Adventures Of A Doctor In Africa
by Alberto Denti di PirajnoIn 1924, the irrepressibly curious Alberto Denti arrived in Libya to work in Italy’s African colonies. With a natural ear for a story and a passionate interest in his work, he must have been as good a doctor as he was a writer. Though equally at home in an embassy or a brothel, Denti appears to have preferred the company of Berbers and Eritreans to that of his fellow Italians. He conjures up the dignity of local chieftains, the palpable charms of celebrated courtesans, the excitement of Tuareg entertainers and the love lost between himself and a wounded lion cub with all the charm of a man who boasted of the ‘inestimable satisfactions known only to those who have lived in Africa’.
A Curious Absence of Chickens: A journal of life, food and recipes from Puglia
by Sophie Grigson'My first thought on reading A Curious Absence of Chickens is that Jane Grigson, the best cookery writer in my lifetime, would have been so proud of her daughter. Sophie Grigson has written twenty odd excellent cookbooks, but I think this is the best of them. It is her first book for a decade and was obviously driven by a real love of her subjects, which are Puglia, people and food. It is witty, informative, fascinating and stuffed full of recipes you want to cook.' Prue Leith'Puglia is a region I wanted to get to know intimately, to understand culture, life, history and geography, reflecting through the prism of the food that's put on the tables of locals and tourists, too. I'm reminded of my 20-year old self, scribbling in notebooks as I first travelled through Italy's south, only this time I'm back to stay.'After her children grew up and left home, Sophie Grigson found herself living alone. About to turn 60, she took the decision to sell or give away most of her belongings, to pack up her car and to drive to Puglia on her own to start a new life. In a part of Italy where she didn't know anyone, having last visited the region 40 years ago, this narrative book of food writing, stories and recipes brings to life the region, its food and the local characters that she meets along the way. This is a book about courage, hope, new horizons and, above all, delicious food.
A Curious Guide to London
by Simon LeylandFrom petticoat duels and lucky cats to the Stiffs Express, Lord Nelson's spare nose, the Piccadilly earthquake and the Great Beer Flood of 1814, A Curious Guide to London takes you on a captivating, wildly entertaining tour of the city you think you know, unearthing the capital's secrets and commemorating its rich, colourful and unusual history. Brimming with tales of London's forgotten past, its strangest traditions and its most eccentric inhabitants, this book celebrates the unique, the unusual and the unknown. Perfect for tourists, day-trippers, commuters and the millions of people who call London home, this alternative guidebook will make you look at the city in a whole new light.
A Curious Life for a Lady: The Story of Isabella Bird
by Pat BarrIsabella Bird was a woman of remarkable gifts. In 1872, at the age of forty, this rather earnest daughter of a country parson abandoned the rectory nest and began her pioneering journeys to some of the most inhospitable corners of the world. Undismayed by discomfort or danger she was to spend almost thirty years travelling - to the Rocky Mountains, the Sandwich Isles, to Japan, Malaya, Kashmir and Tibet, to Persia, Korea and China - where an indomitable spirit, an unassuming cordiality and, above all, a limitless capacity for being interested won her universal welcome. Her accounts of her experiences became best-selling books and established for Isabella Bird a reputation as one of the great travel writers of her day.'Miss Barr has her measure. She and Miss Bird are well suited. The style of both is fresh, energetic, visual, making an enchanting book.'Evening Standard'Rich and riotous as her intrepid heroine moves at the speed of a silent movie through landscapes lusher than any technicolour.'Times Literary Supplement'A rare book.'Sunday Telegraph
Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction
by Muzaffer Uysal John A WilliamsStay ahead of your customers as their service expectations change! In Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction, experts from the field explore customer satisfaction strategies, examining both the long-term and short-term results. This vital tool shows you new and effective approaches for understanding customer satisfaction and providing quality service at all levels of the hospitality and tourism industry. Hospitality and tourism faculty and students as well as professionals will find this book useful for improving and providing quality service management. This book illustrates the complex relationship between customer and service provider, offering practical advice and techniques for maximizing consumer contentment. Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction contains models for meeting-and even surpassing-consumer expectations to increase the value of the customer&’s experience. This essential resource includes various methods for managers to anticipate consumer needs and perceptions, reducing dissatisfaction. This book helps you: incorporate existing and alternative measurements of satisfaction measure and improve service quality create and maintain social interaction linkages between staff and customer identify the destination performance of your hotel and other destinations or attractions evaluate consumer satisfaction with lodging services increase cross-cultural service satisfaction and much more! Tables and figures throughout the text help demonstrate the strategies, and bibliographies at the end of each chapter offer further reading. While there are other books that focus on customer satisfaction, Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction is rare in that it covers satisfaction issues as they apply to both hospitality and tourism.
Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction
by Muzaffer Uysal John A WilliamsStay ahead of your customers as their service expectations change! In Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction, experts from the field explore customer satisfaction strategies, examining both the long-term and short-term results. This vital tool shows you new and effective approaches for understanding customer satisfaction and providing quality service at all levels of the hospitality and tourism industry. Hospitality and tourism faculty and students as well as professionals will find this book useful for improving and providing quality service management. This book illustrates the complex relationship between customer and service provider, offering practical advice and techniques for maximizing consumer contentment. Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction contains models for meeting-and even surpassing-consumer expectations to increase the value of the customer&’s experience. This essential resource includes various methods for managers to anticipate consumer needs and perceptions, reducing dissatisfaction. This book helps you: incorporate existing and alternative measurements of satisfaction measure and improve service quality create and maintain social interaction linkages between staff and customer identify the destination performance of your hotel and other destinations or attractions evaluate consumer satisfaction with lodging services increase cross-cultural service satisfaction and much more! Tables and figures throughout the text help demonstrate the strategies, and bibliographies at the end of each chapter offer further reading. While there are other books that focus on customer satisfaction, Current Issues and Development in Hospitality and Tourism Satisfaction is rare in that it covers satisfaction issues as they apply to both hospitality and tourism.
Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development
by Robert R. NelsonIncrease tourism in your community by designing and expanding your local convention and exposition services! This book provides you with solutions to the issues that can arise during the planning and production phases of constructing a facility as part of a community&’s tourism infrastructure. In Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development, you&’ll find diverse perspectives from experts in a range of disciplines-including public policy, tourism, convention management, and urban planning. As more communities attempt to gain a share of the economically important meetings and exhibition market, this critical resource will aid university faculty, state and city government officials, and convention and visitors&’ bureaus. Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development examines the reasons why certain communities should create convention, event, or tourism centers. The strategies and tips presented in this book can help you select the most appropriate course of action for any given community, from locating the best area to build a center, to allocating space for an exhibition center in an already existing public building. This extensive guide addresses the political, economical, and environmental concerns that can prevent a convention center from ever leaving the drawing board. This book offers you practical advice on a number of concepts, including: linear planning in the first phase-ten questions communities must confront Dedicated Convention Centers (DCC)-the "mother lode" of convention/exhibit tourism capitalizing on the union of two industries-conventions and casinos the definition of "success" in the lifetime of a convention center capturing a share of the market without interfering with local venues the facts behind the illusions-investigating the empirical evidence behind the central myths of the convention and tradeshow industry Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development is generously enhanced with figures, tables, models, and case studies to illuminate the facts you need to know to stay competitive.
Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development
by Robert R. NelsonIncrease tourism in your community by designing and expanding your local convention and exposition services! This book provides you with solutions to the issues that can arise during the planning and production phases of constructing a facility as part of a community&’s tourism infrastructure. In Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development, you&’ll find diverse perspectives from experts in a range of disciplines-including public policy, tourism, convention management, and urban planning. As more communities attempt to gain a share of the economically important meetings and exhibition market, this critical resource will aid university faculty, state and city government officials, and convention and visitors&’ bureaus. Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development examines the reasons why certain communities should create convention, event, or tourism centers. The strategies and tips presented in this book can help you select the most appropriate course of action for any given community, from locating the best area to build a center, to allocating space for an exhibition center in an already existing public building. This extensive guide addresses the political, economical, and environmental concerns that can prevent a convention center from ever leaving the drawing board. This book offers you practical advice on a number of concepts, including: linear planning in the first phase-ten questions communities must confront Dedicated Convention Centers (DCC)-the "mother lode" of convention/exhibit tourism capitalizing on the union of two industries-conventions and casinos the definition of "success" in the lifetime of a convention center capturing a share of the market without interfering with local venues the facts behind the illusions-investigating the empirical evidence behind the central myths of the convention and tradeshow industry Current Issues in Convention and Exhibition Facility Development is generously enhanced with figures, tables, models, and case studies to illuminate the facts you need to know to stay competitive.
Current Issues in Tourism, Gastronomy, and Tourist Destination Research: Proceedings of the International Conference on Tourism, Gastronomy, and Tourist Destination (TGDIC 2021), Jakarta, Indonesia, 2 December 2021
by Hera OktadianaThe book focuses on contemporary research on tourism, gastronomy, and tourist destinations presented at the 3rd Tourism Gastronomy and Destination International Conference (TGDIC 2021). It serves as a platform for knowledge and experience sharing and invites tourism scholars, practitioners, decision-makers, and stakeholders from all parts of society and from various regions of the world to share their knowledge, experience, concepts, examples of good practice, and critical analysis with their international peers. The research papers presented at the conference were organized into three main categories: tourism, gastronomy, and tourist destinations, written by authors from various countries such as Indonesia, China, India, Switzerland, UK, Portugal, and Hungary.
Current Issues in Tourism, Gastronomy, and Tourist Destination Research: Proceedings of the International Conference on Tourism, Gastronomy, and Tourist Destination (TGDIC 2021), Jakarta, Indonesia, 2 December 2021
by Hera Oktadiana Myrza Rahmanita Rina Suprina Pan JunyangThe book focuses on contemporary research on tourism, gastronomy, and tourist destinations presented at the 3rd Tourism Gastronomy and Destination International Conference (TGDIC 2021). It serves as a platform for knowledge and experience sharing and invites tourism scholars, practitioners, decision-makers, and stakeholders from all parts of society and from various regions of the world to share their knowledge, experience, concepts, examples of good practice, and critical analysis with their international peers. The research papers presented at the conference were organized into three main categories: tourism, gastronomy, and tourist destinations, written by authors from various countries such as Indonesia, China, India, Switzerland, UK, Portugal, and Hungary.
The Curse of the Somers: The Secret History behind the U.S. Navy's Most Infamous Mutiny
by James P. DelgadoA detailed and riveting account of the U.S. Navy's greatest mutiny and its wide-ranging cultural and historical impact The greatest controversy in the history of the U.S. Navy of the early American Republic was the revelation that the son of the Secretary of War had seemingly plotted a bloody mutiny that would have turned the U.S. brig Somers into a pirate ship. The plot discovered, he and his co-conspirators were hastily condemned and hanged at sea. The repercussions of those acts brought headlines, scandal, a fistfight at a cabinet meeting, a court martial, ruined lives, lost reputations, and tales of a haunted ship "bound for the devil" and lost tragically at sea with many of its crew. The "Somers affair" led to the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy and it remains the Navy's only acknowledged mutiny in its history. The story also inspired Herman Melville's White-Jacket and Billy Budd. Others connected to the Somers included Commodore Perry, a relation and defender of the Somers' captain Mackenzie; James Fenimore Cooper, whose feud with the captain, dating back to the War of 1812, resurfaced in his reportage of the affair; and Raphael Semmes, the Somers' last caption who later served in the Confederate Navy. The Curse of the Somers is a thorough recreation of this classic tale, told with the help of recently uncovered evidence. Written by a maritime historian and archaeologist who helped identify the long-lost wreck and subsequently studied its sunken remains, this is a timeless tale of life and death at sea. James P. Delgado re-examines the circumstances, drawing from a rich historical record and from the investigation of the ship's sunken remains. What surfaces is an all-too-human tale that resonates and chills across the centuries.
The Curse of the Somers: The Secret History behind the U.S. Navy's Most Infamous Mutiny
by James P. DelgadoA detailed and riveting account of the U.S. Navy's greatest mutiny and its wide-ranging cultural and historical impact The greatest controversy in the history of the U.S. Navy of the early American Republic was the revelation that the son of the Secretary of War had seemingly plotted a bloody mutiny that would have turned the U.S. brig Somers into a pirate ship. The plot discovered, he and his co-conspirators were hastily condemned and hanged at sea. The repercussions of those acts brought headlines, scandal, a fistfight at a cabinet meeting, a court martial, ruined lives, lost reputations, and tales of a haunted ship "bound for the devil" and lost tragically at sea with many of its crew. The "Somers affair" led to the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy and it remains the Navy's only acknowledged mutiny in its history. The story also inspired Herman Melville's White-Jacket and Billy Budd. Others connected to the Somers included Commodore Perry, a relation and defender of the Somers' captain Mackenzie; James Fenimore Cooper, whose feud with the captain, dating back to the War of 1812, resurfaced in his reportage of the affair; and Raphael Semmes, the Somers' last caption who later served in the Confederate Navy. The Curse of the Somers is a thorough recreation of this classic tale, told with the help of recently uncovered evidence. Written by a maritime historian and archaeologist who helped identify the long-lost wreck and subsequently studied its sunken remains, this is a timeless tale of life and death at sea. James P. Delgado re-examines the circumstances, drawing from a rich historical record and from the investigation of the ship's sunken remains. What surfaces is an all-too-human tale that resonates and chills across the centuries.
The Customs of the Kingdoms of India (Great Journeys Ser.)
by Marco PoloAs Marco Polo (1254-1324) returned home across the Indian Ocean, after years in the service of Genghis Khan, he picked up a fabulous array of stories from sailors and merchants, about the peoples of the region, some reliable, some wholly implausible, but all fascinating.Great Journeys allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries – but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: Great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.
Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in the Two Worlds of Peru
by Ronald WrightRonald Wright’s journey through Peru is simultaneously an account of the country’s proud Inca heritage and of the modern mestizo nation – its two worlds. Beginning in Cajamarca, where Spain first defeated the Inca army, Wright traces the indigenous history back to its mythic origins at Lake Titicaca. Yet Wright is equally interested in the chance encounters of the road – the music of everyday – and above all in the realities of life for the native Runa Indians. Moving between desert and mountain, Spanish and Indian, he explores the place of their ancient traditions in today’s Peru with admiration and anger.
Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto
by Leslie BuckThis absorbing debut memoir recounts an American gardener&’s apprenticeship with the most prestigious gardening firm in Kyoto.